Franklinville, North Carolina TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

This lesson was great for planning and deciding how the teacher will physically manage the classroom, which to be honest, seems like one of the more daunting parts of teaching for a new teacher, which I am, especially having to discipline students, while maintaining that ever important rapport that is necessary for a successful classroom. Teachers who are flexible in their lessons tend to be more successful, being able to plan your lesson but still be able to handle those things that arise that may cause disruptions to the plan will mean that the lesson still goes forward as it needs to. The teacher's physical appearance and attitude within the class is important for setting the tone of the class. Everything from sitting versus standing to offering vocal variety and enthusiasm versus a more subdued attitude. It seems that each variation can have their own uses, but being aware of where you want the class and how your manner can effect that change is important. Additionally, maintaining eye contact and using gestures can really help move the lesson along, with less teacher talk time. It is important to have teacher talk time because the students expect it to a certain degree and need it (especially when the teacher is taking the role of model for natural English language usage and sound) but also because the students should be engaged in the teacher's words when new material is being presented, instructions are being given, and generally when there are things the whole class should be hearing. However, student talk time should be focused on as much as possible because the more a student talks, the more they are using the new language and the more they are developing their fluency. Teacher talk time can be lessened by assigning group and team work, having a very clear idea of what you as the teacher need to say and the best way to say it clearly and concisely beforehand, avoiding the use of jargon and slang, and speaking using language that is at or below the level the student's understand so that you can avoid repeating yourself and having students misunderstand or get lost in the difficult or unknown language. Classroom arrangement can be conducive to the amount of teacher versus student talk time and can help set the tone of the classroom in conjunction with the teacher's body language and manner. For instance, having the students sit in rows conveys that the teacher is in utter control of the classroom and that the students should not be talking and should be looking forward and listening to the lecture being given by the teacher. While this arrangement is good for large class sizes and for creating less space for disciplinary problems, while giving the teacher a good view of the entire class, it can create a feeling of being at the back of the class, unseen or unobserved and students may not pay attention and also limits the space for student to student engagement and for student talk time. On the other hand having students sit in a circle or horseshoe shape can greatly increase the ease of student to student talk time, makes for easily setting up pair-work, and allows the class to feel more as one, there is none of that feeling of being unobserved and not really part of the class, so students tend to engage more in this set-up. Additionally, this set up still places the teacher in a central role and because the students feel more like a group and part of the class, they tend to be more focused on the lesson and willing to listen, so that the teacher is able to maintain control but not be in such a dominating position as when the students are in rows.